external HDD unusable

I bought a Hitachi internal hard drive. Installed it in a USB 2.0 housing.
Plugged it into my laptop running XP.

XP recognized the external drive as a removable media storage device and
said all drivers were installed.

I see the "drive" listed under control panel. Just like my digital camera.
But I can't move any files to the HDD.

Do I need to format the drive first or........?

Thanks

billy bob wrote:
> I bought a Hitachi internal hard drive. Installed it in a USB 2.0 housing.
> Plugged it into my laptop running XP.
>
> XP recognized the external drive as a removable media storage device and
> said all drivers were installed.
>
> I see the "drive" listed under control panel. Just like my digital camera.
> But I can't move any files to the HDD.
>
> Do I need to format the drive first or........?
>
> Thanks


yes
use disk management

new drives usually come *not* partitioned of formatted

"philo" wrote:

> billy bob wrote:
> > I bought a Hitachi internal hard drive. Installed it in a USB 2.0 housing.
> > Plugged it into my laptop running XP.
> >
> > XP recognized the external drive as a removable media storage device and
> > said all drivers were installed.
> >
> > I see the "drive" listed under control panel. Just like my digital camera.
> > But I can't move any files to the HDD.
> >
> > Do I need to format the drive first or........?
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
> yes
> use disk management
>
> new drives usually come *not* partitioned of formatted
>

I'm not able to access the drive because it is not rcognized as a drive. It
is just a removable media storage devise.

Where is disk management? How do I do this with USB? DO I need to slave
this unit using the ribbon cable to another hard drive so I can format it?

Thanks

RIght click on my computer and select manage. Then click on disk management.
You should see the drive in this location. Right click on it for options. If
this doenst work let us know.

The Woodpile

"billy bob" wrote:

>
>
> "philo" wrote:
>
> > billy bob wrote:
> > > I bought a Hitachi internal hard drive. Installed it in a USB 2.0 housing.
> > > Plugged it into my laptop running XP.
> > >
> > > XP recognized the external drive as a removable media storage device and
> > > said all drivers were installed.
> > >
> > > I see the "drive" listed under control panel. Just like my digital camera.
> > > But I can't move any files to the HDD.
> > >
> > > Do I need to format the drive first or........?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> >
> >
> > yes
> > use disk management
> >
> > new drives usually come *not* partitioned of formatted
> >
>
> I'm not able to access the drive because it is not rcognized as a drive. It
> is just a removable media storage devise.
>
> Where is disk management? How do I do this with USB? DO I need to slave
> this unit using the ribbon cable to another hard drive so I can format it?
>
> Thanks
>
>

The Woodpile wrote:
> RIght click on my computer and select manage. Then click on disk management.
> You should see the drive in this location. Right click on it for options. If
> this doenst work let us know.
>
> The Woodpile
>
> "billy bob" wrote:
>
>
>>
>>"philo" wrote:
>>
>>
>>>billy bob wrote:
>>>
>>>>I bought a Hitachi internal hard drive. Installed it in a USB 2.0 housing.
>>>>Plugged it into my laptop running XP.
>>>>
>>>>XP recognized the external drive as a removable media storage device and
>>>>said all drivers were installed.
>>>>
>>>>I see the "drive" listed under control panel. Just like my digital camera.
>>>>But I can't move any files to the HDD.
>>>>
>>>>Do I need to format the drive first or........?
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>>yes
>>>use disk management
>>>
>>>new drives usually come *not* partitioned of formatted
>>>
>>
>>I'm not able to access the drive because it is not rcognized as a drive. It
>>is just a removable media storage devise.
>>
>>Where is disk management? How do I do this with USB? DO I need to slave
>>this unit using the ribbon cable to another hard drive so I can format it?
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309000